


The Fish

by jjtaylor



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-17
Updated: 2010-02-17
Packaged: 2017-10-07 08:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjtaylor/pseuds/jjtaylor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Decisions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fish

**Author's Note:**

> Title and rainbows from the Elizabeth Bishop poem.

Kingsley can feel the cold in his toes, feel it seeping through his boots. He's been standing out in the snow for hours, but now he feels the cold, when his lying in wait is over, when he most needs to focus. His wand is held at the throat of a Death Eater, whose black robe spills out around him like a shadow. He's whimpering, but Kingsley doesn't hear it. It's the cold that's distracting him, the dull discomfort shrinking his world to the shape of the snowflakes falling on the sleeve of his robe and the crunch of snow under his feet as he shifts his stance, idly considering frostbite.

He has to decide what he's going to do with his suspect, his captive, prone, shivering on the ground. He is allowed to kill on sight, no unmasking necessary, and he is also allowed to bring the Death Eater in for questioning. Kingsley does not appreciate having a choice, because he knows some laws were not meant to be contemplated in a copse of trees, where he can see the sky. Killing Curse, Stunning Spell, unmask the stranger and find out if he was once a friend? Kingsley curls his toes in his boots, his wand steady.

The sun suddenly comes out from behind a cloud and reflects sharply, stunningly off the Death Eater's mask. Droplets of water from melted snowflakes glisten into small round rainbows, the icicles on the tree branches creating jagged, angular rainbows. Kingsley blinks and everything is rainbow, rainbow, rainbow.

Kingsley Stuns the man twice, the red light of the spell almost making him feel warm.


End file.
